Natalia’s vein pulsed under the increased pressure of Neill’s hand enveloping her wrist. A pink hair tie she’d looped there was caught under it, which at one point she felt him flick his fingertip against.

She pulled again out of curiosity, and he pulled back.

‘Yah - ah! You stay right there.’

Indirectly from the corner of his eye came that low and husky murmur, as blood tingled in a maelstrom at her fingertips, sending a strange sensation into her knees.

The two other pupils, to whom Neill freely gesticulated with his other hand, had taken the opportunity to query Neill on their coursework worries whilst Coleman was absent, and it seemed as though Natalia was just in line waiting to talk to him too.

Waiting, wondering, Natalia felt as though time it...

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